Photo Reports

Just to bring back some good festival times from this summer here are some impressions from day one of Wacken Open Air 2022 with Thundermother, Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons (from their first gig at LGH stage) and Grave Digger! Hope you’ll enjoy or got back some good memories if you were there!

A festival experience that combines metal and folk music, authentic folklore, stunning nature and a rich Viking history. The organization is very small and a bit chaotic, but you shouldn’t expect more of a small festival like this. Situated next to the Midgard Historical museum, harbor, burial mounds, longhouse, and larp encampment at the seaside. Add a small but very international crowd and a most welcoming atmosphere and you have the recipe for a real viking style festival weekend. Allow us to take a trip with you to Borre, Norway, to Midgardsblot. 

Midgardsblot is located in Borre, in the Vestfold county of Norway, at the west coast of the Oslofjord. There is a direct train from Oslo Airport, passing by the capital, that stops at Skoppum. From there it is just a short bus ride to the festival site (approx. 4 km hike). If you are travelling from the capital you can also easily take a train to Moss and catch a ferry to Horten. This way you can enjoy the nice scenery of the Oslofjord for half an hour free of charge (without car). From Horten you can again take a bus or hike about 4,5 km to the festival site. During the festival you can either camp right next to the beach or spend your nights in one of the hotels in Horten. Be quick to decide though, as hotels and other options such as cabins and AirBnB sell out months before the festival!

The idea for Midgardsblot grew from the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian constitution. The fans who have read the review know that Skuggsjá, the collaboration project between Einar Selvik of Wardruna and Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved, was a commissioned concert piece for this special occasion. Because of the success of this project and the positive reception among metal fans and fans of Viking culture, the idea grew to organize an open air festival combing these aspects.

The Midgard Historical Center in Borre and the surrounding area proved to be the perfect place. The museum is located right next to an excavation site of what is presumed to have been a thriving Viking trading post. The protected park area holds the largest assembly of monumental grave mounds in Northern Europe. Just a bit down the road you have the great hall, or Gildehallen, a reconstructed Viking feasting hall that is used by the festival for intimate concerts, story telling, and beer or mead tastings.

This place bursting with historical significance is the area where Midgardsblot takes place. A blót is the term for ‘sacrifice’ in norse paganism. The sacrifice could be to the Norse gods, the spirits of the land or your ancestors. In any way, it often constituted a moment of coming together and sharing experiences, food and drinks. This is exactly what the organizers try to offer. And believe us, it is so much more than just a music festival.

With GRIMM we’re always on the look for the next big thing in music to try and cover those promising artists. One such talent is the UK artist YUNGBLUD, who has been taking the world by storm with his highly catchy and poppy music that has a clear punk attitude. While the poppy nature of his music might turn off a lot of people that frequently visit our site, we feel he’s a fresh breath of air in the realm of more commercial rock music and his clear belief in being who you are without compromise is something that should at least get appreciation by the part of our crowd that highly values individuality and not hiding who you are. So off we went to catch his Helsinki stop on his “Life On Mars Europe Tour” at the Culture House! When we got to the sold out venue shortly before the doors opened, there was a line of people waiting to get in that spanned a couple of blocks. The sheer dedication of YUNGBLUD‘s fans in Finland is pretty obvious…

After several times being announced as the headliner for the Tuska editions that ended up not happening due to the pandemic and another postponed show, the French metal masters of Gojira finally made it to Finland! While at first the show was scheduled to be at the Helsinki Culture House, the ticket sales pretty soon told the organization that there was way more demand than they initially thought and ended up moving to the much bigger Black Box Jäähalli (Ice Hall). And again, the show got sold out completely by the time they arrived here. With support from up-and-comers Alien Weaponry and Employed To Serve, we knew we were in for quite the night for heavy music!

Shiraz Lane finally released another full-length with ‘Forgotten Shades of Life’ and of course they had to properly celebrate that with a release show at the legendary Helsinki venue Tavastia! With them, they brought their hard rock buddies of The Cruel Intentions and alternative rock up-and-comers Luna Kills to blow the roof off the place for a night of proper rocking out!

This was possibly the hottest gig I have ever attended and I mean hot, sticky and very very clammy! The Mission performed 2 sets as good as back to back with no support act. I managed to last out the first set and about the first song of the second set but due to having a very wringing wet T shirt and a steamed up camera I left the gig early before I was reduced to a puddle. Check out some of my pictures of that memorable show right here:

Knotfest, one of the world’s biggest and most legendary events, has made its way to Finland! What a perfect country to be at with a fest of this magnitude that celebrates all that is metal and up-and-coming. After an exciting first day, this was the moment most people had been waiting for, with the glorious return of Slipknot, in good company of bands like Shiraz Lane, Tesseract, Stoned Statues, Cradle of Filth, Medeia, Bring Me The Horizon, and Moon Shot!

Although hard to find on the internet, there was one show in Europe, right before Yngwie Malmsteen‘s Parabellum tour kicks off in the USA on August 11th. (Which was not even mentioned on the official tour t-shirt).

On the day itself we were informed that the show would start later than first announced. There would be no warm up act and Yngwie would play for 1 hour… but at the age of 59, and after a career of over 40 years, Yngwie is still unstoppable and threw us a show that lasted an hour and a half!

While throwing dozens of plectrums into the audience (I guess almost everyone in the first 4 rows must have had the chance to catch one) and thereby giving a full time job to the guy who took care of refilling the plectrum holders and replace them at the microphone stand, he threw a neo-classical metal performance only he can pull off. While taking control over the whole stage (even telling the photographers where to stand for the next song), he played al his songs we wanted to hear. The classical parts, the hard rock and also the covers (Smoke on the water, Red house,…)

Strange that the venue wasn’t sold out, but then again, like I started: it obviously wasn’t part of a European tour. It looked more like a try-out for the upcoming American tour, and as far as I’m concerned: you got a ‘go’ Yngwie!

Thanks for having us 013 Poppodium!

Knotfest, one of the world’s biggest and most legendary events, has made its way to Finland! What a perfect country to be at with a fest of this magnitude that celebrates all that is metal and up-and-coming. With a really solid line-up on the first day already with Bloodred Hourglass, Stam1na, Sara, Arch Enemy, Lähiöbotox, Lamb Of God, Huora and headliners Nightwish taking the crown, it was the perfect start to the weekend and a good preparation for what was to come still the day after.

The travelling rock and metal festival dropped by Kerava again, and since it’s only a couple of minutes walking from where I live, how could I miss out on this event with a charming line-up of Finland’s popular bands and a nice selection of international acts? The second day was compared to the day before quite a bit more wet with regular bursts of rain, but that didn’t take away any of the fun with bands like Klamydia, Viikate, Stam1na, Melrose, Uriah Heep, Uniklubi, Accept, Cyan Kicks and rock legend Deep Purple to round the weekend up!